The present invention relates to a modular compressed natural gas fuel unit.
Owing chiefly to the increasing costs of liquid petroleum fuels such as diesel fuel, gasoline and home heating oil, and the environmental concerns relating to their use, there has been increased attention focused on natural gas as an alternative fuel source.
Because natural gas is normally supplied in the form of compressed natural gas (CNG) for use in the vehicles, there has been a need to reduce and standardize the space taken up by CNG fuel units. It has also been found desireable to standardize CNG fuel unit spatial and dimensional requirements.
One of the problems in the original manufacture of CNG-burning vehicles, or the conversion of liquid fuel vehicles to CNG, is that each individual vehicle design often has required that the individual components of the CNG fuel system be placed at different locations on each vehicle as the design of each vehicle permits.
The vehicles into which such CNG fuel units have been incorporated have ranged from relatively small fork lifts and other smaller utility vehicles to vans and large fleet trucks. Such individual tailoring of CNG fuel units for each vehicle design and configuration involves a great deal of trial and error in placing the individual components of the CNG system in locations where they can function safely and effectively. Also, with the individual CNG fuel unit components being separated, tailoring of a CNG fuel unit for a particular vehicle involves the tailoring of the gas conduits of varying strengths and safety ratings to connect the portions of the CNG fuel unit, ultimately reaching the combustion chamber of the vehicle's engine. Individual tailoring of CNG fuel units accordingly requires the additional time and expense necessary to fit, configure and individually produce each such unit. This is most problematic in the field of conversion of diesel fuel or gasoline-burning vehicles to CNG due to the wide variety of vehicles one can encounter. However, this problem could also adversely impact the original manufacture of CNG vehicles as the designs of such originally manufactured vehicles change over time.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a modular CNG fuel unit requiring less total space and whose spatial and dimensional requirements may be standardized to make more efficient the utilization of CNG fuel units in a wide variety of vehicles, whether originally manufactured for or converted to CNG combustion.
It is also an object of the present invention to be able to reduce the time, effort and expense of non-CNG-burning vehicles to CNG combustion by reducing the amount of fitting and configuring of individual component parts of the CNG fuel unit and the necessary customizing of connection means between such individual component parts.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a modular CNG fuel unit which can be mounted to a variety of structures such as a mobile home or other temporary dwelling, or on any variety of vehicles adapted for CNG combustion such as fork lifts or other work vehicles, automobiles, vans or trucks.
Other advantages and the solution to other problems existing in the prior art may become apparent to one of ordinary skill upon the manufacture or use of a modular CNG fuel unit in accordance with the present invention.